October Resits 2021

Hi does anyone reckon since 2021 summer exams are cancelled that they’ll give the option to resit again in October 2021 just like 2020?

Reply 1

Radioactivewaste

Anyone? I really hope they do because I need this.

Reply 2

Radioactivewaste

@Compost what do you think personally?

Reply 3

Compost

I think they've made a big mistake abandoning all forms of fully external assessment in the Summer, here's a few off-the-top-of-my-head reasons why:

I don't see the change is going to help even up the disadvantage people in different schools have suffered

It's likely to bring forward the time at which the work that's going to be assessed has to take place - so losing even more teaching time.

devising a system that is not highly susceptible to candidate and/or school cheating will be almost impossible

They're going to have to come up with a new system to achieve this and train everyone in what's required. They don't currently have a great track record in that.

Teachers are rubbish at predicting grades (I've spent 16 years analysing this), partly for good reasons - it's hard - and partly because some teachers lack the intelligence/will to understand basic probability and statistics. Having spent many years arguing with the same teachers who make the same implausible predictions every year I despair of a system that's going to trust them all.

The external candidates are screwed over yet again

By the Summer, the weather will be better (so the transmission rate of Covid should have dropped) and lots of people will have been vaccinated so some level of proper external exams ought to be feasible.

I would hope they'd come up with option of some external assessments, ideally sooner than the Autumn so people can make it to university, but I'm not optimistic. Given their current record, they may recoil at the outcry over results in August and suddenly introduce some Autumn exams.

Reply 4

Radioactivewaste

Original post by Compost

I think they've made a big mistake abandoning all forms of fully external assessment in the Summer, here's a few off-the-top-of-my-head reasons why:

I don't see the change is going to help even up the disadvantage people in different schools have suffered

It's likely to bring forward the time at which the work that's going to be assessed has to take place - so losing even more teaching time.

devising a system that is not highly susceptible to candidate and/or school cheating will be almost impossible

They're going to have to come up with a new system to achieve this and train everyone in what's required. They don't currently have a great track record in that.

The external candidates are screwed over yet again

I actually agree and see sense in all of these reasons. I’ve been an external candidate before and many of us got nowhere near the grades that we deserved. After years of hard work they just slap on D and E grades and expect you to be happy with that. Imagine being both from a disadvantaged area and being a private candidate, it really doesn’t work well at all.

At least when people weren’t happy with their August grades they still got the option to sit the exams in October despite it being late. Some universities do have January intake which gave them some hope. I’m personally hoping they at least do October exams again so there is an actual option to sit the exams and get the grades that people deserve.